After game developers in Ukraine reported being unable to collect payments from Steam, Valve has explained that it’s an issue with the company’s own bank.
Earlier in the month, Ukrainian Steam developers started receiving emails from Valve that read: “Due to the current environment, we are unable to send bank payments to Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.”
One such developer based in Ukraine, Stas Shostak, has since received another email from Valve, which apologised and explained the situation. According to the company, Valve’s bank has started requiring “intermediary bank information” for payments to accounts in Ukraine and Russia, as the bank “will no longer be allowing payments to Belarus.”
So Valve clarified, it really is a technical problem and it’s gonna be okay till April payment. Sorry if I was being rude, but I wish they’d say this from the beginning. pic.twitter.com/s1B2p4MnXP
— Stas Shostak ???????? (@StasShostak) March 18, 2022
This means that although Valve is “working to understand all the new requirements,” it will take time to land on a solution – meaning the company will not be able to make payments “due at the end of March”. In the meantime, Valve recommends that developers either wait for it to be resolved or change their payment instructions to a bank outside of Ukraine, Russia, or Belarus.
Valve has confirmed to PC Gamer that these emails are in fact accurate, and Shostak told the publication they are “not sure about April” being the earliest the issue will be sorted by.
“Will they really sort it out between the banks, or will Ukraine still be cut out just in case? All my Ukrainian gamedev friends report the same situation. Some (me included) are just waiting for the next month, some decided to open accounts in foreign banks to be completely sure they get the next payment,” said Shostak.
As of publication it’s unclear how much longer these payment problems will persist for.
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